if you look at the u.s. deficit is about $4 trillion a year. these tax increases cover about 400 billion. that's 9 or 10%. that's. it the rest of this battle is over entitlements. i mean the democrats could solve this whole thing simply by agreeing to a minor increase, just a two year increase. >> the president did put that on the table and the republicans reject that. the real issue here is there going to be a self-inflicted wound to the economy? the uncertainty here. either way taxes on the wealthy are going up. they'll go up under a deal approved in the last hours which may or may not happen or if it doesn't, there's no deal, then we go over the so-called cliff and the tax goes up there. so either way taxes are going up. >> if the president wanted a deal on entitlements, all he has to do is raise the age from social security to 65 to 67, maybe 68. that solves the entire problem. the president won't deal on that. >> it's a separate issue with its own trust fund. that could be solved fairly easy. you're right about that. it's medicare that's t